Education

Question 1

What were children educated on?

Answer 1

Confucian concepts - NOT subjects like math or science which would help in the modern economy

Question 2

Illiteracy in 1949

Answer 2

80%

Question 3

Percentage of each gender and how many years each would spend in any type of education

Answer 3

Males | Females
45% | 2.2%
4 years vs 3 years

Question 4

How was the education system elitist?

Answer 4

Best kindergartens and primary schools in the cities, and wealthy city neighbourhoods at that.
Charged huge tuition fees for the common man.
Entrance exams.

Question 5

Literacy rate by 1964

Answer 5

64%

Question 6

What did the Communists do to increase the number of children in schools? How did attendance increase from ‘49-‘57

Answer 6

Introduced a national primary school system.

26-64 million

Question 7

How was education improved for adult peasants?

Answer 7

WINTER schools introduced

Question 8

How many adults attended winter schools from 1951-52?

Answer 8

42 million peasants

Question 9

What professionals did the Communist regime lack?

Answer 9

Lack of scientists, doctors, engineers.

Therefore polytechnic universities were established and many were sent to Russia to train there!

Question 10

How did Mao aim to increase number of Doctors, engineers and scientists

Answer 10

Therefore polytechnic colleges and universities were established and many were sent to Russia to train there!

Question 11

Why was Chinese language so difficult to learn?

Answer 11

Every word was written by a different character which made it incredibly complex AND it differed from region to region.

Question 12

Why was Pinyin introduced?

Answer 12

To simplify the difficult and complex characters and to standardise the Chinese ‘alphabet’ so people could become literate more easily.

It’s still used today so must be effective

Question 13

FAILURES of educational reform

Answer 13

• still remained elitist - KEY SCHOOLS established where students had to take entrance exams (usually for govt. officials)
• huge underfunding! In 1952 only 6.4% of budget was spent on education
• rural teaching was AWFUL - teachers teaching basic literacy were barely educated
• Winter schools were ineffective because peasants forgot what they learned by the next winter AND in the Great Leap Forward many couldn’t attend because of working on backyard furnaces.

Question 14

COLLAPSE OF EDUCATION POST 1966

Answer 14

CULTURAL REVOLUTION meant schools and universities closed.
130 million received NO education as they travelled across the country to attend struggle meetings and rallies.
Teachers killed as they represented the 4 olds (traditional authority) and books were destroyed
After, many did not return to school